JOINT PRELIMi: 



EPORT 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE ON BATHING BEACHES AND 
RECREATION PIERS 



AND THE 



LAKE SHORE RECLAMATION COMMISSION 



TO 



MAYOR BUSSE AND THE CITY COUNCIL 
December, 1910 



CHICAGO: 

THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1910. 

























^'^^%^.^ 
^i') 



^ Ir 1^ « > M^ 1, ^ 5^Jj^^ 

^' -"^ 'II. I ' ' J% i"#^" S 



/ 



JOINT PRELIMINARY REPORT 

OF THE ^ "Z^ I 

COMMITTEE ON BATHING BEACHES AND 
RECREATION PIERS 

AND THE 

LAKE SHORE RECLAMATION COMMISSION 



TO 



MAYOR BUSSE AND THE CITY COUNCIL 
December, 1910 



CHICAGO: 

THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1910. 



Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers, of the 
Cit}' Council of the City of Chicago. 

WINFIELD P. DUNN, Chairman, 

WILLIAM E. DEVER (resigned November 28, 1910), 

MILTON J. FOREMAN, 

DENNIS J. EGAN, 

THEODORE K. LONG, 

E. F. CULLERTON (appointed November 28, 1910). 



Lake Shore Reclamation Commission, of the City Council 
of the City of Chicago. 

THEODORE K. LONG, Chairman, 
EDWARD J. BRUNDAGE, 
DR. W. A. EVANS. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



LETTEE OP TRANSMITTAL TO THE MAYOK AND THE CITY COUNCIL. 



1. 

2. 

3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 

7. 



n. 

JOINT PEELIMINAEY EEPOKT. 

Historical. 

Inspection of the lake shore. 

Various plans considered. 

Opinion of the Corporation Counsel. 

Communication with Mayor Busse. 

Legal proceedings against trespassing shore owners. 

Tentative scheme for bathing beaches. 

Report and estimates of City Engineer. 

Committee 's recommendations. 



III. 

SKETCHES, PLANS, STUDIES AND DRAWINGS. 

Plate A. Montrose avenue general ground plan. 
Plate B. Montrose avenue cross-section details. 
Plate C. Twenty-second street general ground plan. 
Plate D. Morgan Shoal Park general ground plan. 
Plate E. Thirty-ninth street foot passage under the Illinois 
Central Railroad. 

Plate 1. Diagram of the lake shore from Montrose avenue 
to Seventy-ninth street, showing proposed bathing beaches. 
Plate 2. Morgan Shoal large scale. 

Montrose avenue bathing beach and recreation pier. 

Montrose avenue proposed pavilion and beach. 

Twenty-second street bathing beach and recreation 



Plate 3. 

Plate 4. 

Plate 5. 
pier. 

Plate 6. 
beach. 

Plate 7. 
pavilion. 



Fifty-jfirst street perspective view of island and 
Montrose avenue perspective of bathing beach and 



LETTEE OE TRANSMITTAL. 

Chicago, December 15, 1910. 

To the Honorable Fred A. Busse, Mayor, and the Honorable, 

the City Council of Chicago: 

Gentlemen, — In presenting this joint preliminary report 

of the Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers and 

the Lake Shore Reclamation Commission, your committees wish 

to say that in the consideration of the question of bathing 

beaches they have not been unmindful of the very suggestive 

advice of His Honor, the Mayor, in his message of April 12, 

1909, as follows : 

I desire to suggest further that in dealing with the harbor questions 
the importance of creating commercial utilities be not permitted to 
obscure completely the importance of amusement utilities. In connection 
with outer harbor development particularly, if such should be under- 
taken, the needs of residents of congested districts who have all too little 
access to the lake front, should be met with provision for recreation 
piers or in such other way as may be determined. 

Taking the foregoing recommendation as a safe guide, we 
have strenuously endeavored to work out a general plan or 
scheme that, while sufficiently comprehensive for the whole lake 
front, will not be impossible of accomplishment by reason of its 
prohibitory cost. Our investigations and studies of this very 
interesting question lead us to the conclusion that the facility 
of a great and populous center like Chicago for recreation has 
a marked effect upon health, vice and crime, and it is a well 
recognized fact that parks, recreation piers and bathing facili- 
ties not only lessen crime in a great city, but radically improve 
and uplift the general moral tone of the community. This is 
clearly demonstrated in the increase of small parks in certain 
congested localities. The people of Chicago are entitled to the 
best that the shore of Lake Michigan can supply and they will 
not be content until their beaches are made as beautiful and 
attractive as the sands of Jersey and the coasts of Ostend, and 
the baths as useful and necessary to their health and happiness 
as were the celebrated baths of Caracalla and Diocletian to the 
health and happiness of Rome. 

5 



6 

Our general bathing-beacli scheme contemplates the estab- 
lishment of seven open bathing beaches at convenient intervals 
from Montrose avenue on the north to Seventy-ninth street on 
the south, and also the creation of an island park on Morgan 
Reef between Forty-eighth and Fifty-first streets. These 
beaches would, in a large measure, give back to the people of 
Chicago the right to use the lake front, from which they have 
been so unwisely and selfishly deprived. 

It is not the design of your committees to favor the expen- 
diture of a large sum of money. While their plan is intended 
to conform to the general scheme of the Commercial Club, it 
contemplates the investment only of a sufficient amount at the 
outset to supply a proper and adequate equipment for imme- 
diate use for bathing beaches, and from time to time to add to 
such equipment by way of bathhouses, gymnasiums, recreation 
piers and boathouses until our lake front will eventually become 
so ideal as a resort that it will, not only attract our own citizens 
to the use of its health-giving waters in the summer months, but 
will also attract hundreds of thousands of others from the 
surrounding towns of Illinois and adjacent States. 

According to the Chicago Plan Committee the waste material 
from excavations and other sources in Chicago now approx- 
imates 1,000,000 cubic yards per annum, or material sufficient 
to build an island of twenty acres twenty feet above the surface 
in seven feet of water. It would seem, therefore, that with this 
vast tonnage of crude construction material to be disposed of 
the cost of utilizing it on the lake shore would be relatively small 
and that the building of bathing beaches, recreation piers and 
pleasure islands is not a remote and fanciful dream, but a plain 
matter-of-fact business method of making the best use of our 
waste material. 

While the committees feel that in the treatment of this sub- 
ject, due regard must be had for the rights of those more for- 
tunate citizens whose homes lie adjacent to or front upon the 
lake shore, sight must not be lost of the fact that after all, the 
lake shore, in a larger sense, is the common heritage of all the 
people of Chicago, and that as such common heritage all have 
the right to use and enjoy the manifold provisions and attrac- 



tions with which nature has endowed it. It is manifestly 
pathetic and cruel to deprive the romping boyhood and girlhood 
of this great city of a full and free use of the lake shore for 
bathing and recreation purposes. 

We desire to express our obligations to Mr. Edward H. 
Bennett and Mr. D. H. Burnham for valuable assistance in the 
preparation of plans, sketches and studies; also to Mr. John 
Ericson for valuable drawings and estimates furnished, all of 
which appear in our report. 

Yours very truly, 
Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piees, 

By W. P. Dunn, 

Chairman, 
Lake Shore Reclamation Commission, 

By Theodore K. Long, 

Chairman. 

n. 

JOINT PRELIMINARY REPORT. 

1. historical. 

The Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers 
had its origin in the work of the License Committee. This latter 
committee, one of the regular standing committees of the City 
Council, had under consideration during the months of April 
and May, 1909, an ordinance introduced by Alderman Jones, 
which, though designed to regulate the licensing of bathing 
beaches generally, was inspired by local conditions at Manhattan 
Beach and beaches adjacent thereto on the south side. 

After due consideration given to said proposed ordinance, 
a substitute ordinance was reported out by the License Com- 
mittee and passed the Council May 24, 1909. After the passage 
of this ordinance it was felt by many members of the License 
Committee that in lieu of the somewhat objectionable so-called 
amusement beaches, which were designed to be affected by the 
ordinance just passed, the public should be abundantly supplied 
with municipal bathing beaches conducted on a thoroughly 
reputable, hygienic and sanitary basis, and with this object in 



8 

view the following resolution was introduced in the City Council 
by Alderman Dunn, June 8, 1909, and passed unanimously. 

Whereas, There is an ever-increasing demand by the people of this 
city for an opportunity to enjoy the refreshing waters of our thirty 
miles of lake frontage ; and, 

Whereas, The fact that this magnificent stretch of lake shore is with- 
out public piers, bathing beaches or recreation spots, calls for immediate 
action by the municipal authorities, if it is the desire of the public that 
the lake shore be not monopolized by private individuals for private gain, 
and that the public be not deprived of the free and unrestricted use and 
access of the shore waters ; now, therefore, 

Be It Resolved hi/ tlie City Council of the City of Chicago, That the 
Mayor be and is hereby requested to appoint a committee of five alder- 
men, one from each section of the city, who shall constitute a committee 
with full power to investigate the feasibility of establishing municipal 
recreation piers, bathing beaches and boat landings, and shall have the 
further power to cooperate with the various park boards having juris- 
diction over a portion of the waters of Lake Michigan, to the end that a 
scheme may be developed for the establishment of such piers, beaches 
and boat landings with or without the cooperation of the park authorities ; 
and, further, to devise ways and means of financing such proposition, 
and said committee shall report back to this council its findings and con- 
clusions. 

Immediately after the passage of the foregoing resolution 

the Mayor appointed as a committee thereunder, the following 

named aldermen: Messrs. Dunn, Dever, Foreman, Egan and 

Long. 

2. INSPECTION OF THE LAKE SHOEE. 

The committee, in its desire to find the sites most available 
for bathing beaches and recreation piers, viewed with care the 
lake front from the grounds of the Saddle and Cycle Club, on the 
north, to Seventy-ninth street and the grounds of the South 
Chicago Steel Company, on the south. The work of viewing the 
lake shore was performed partly in automobiles and partly by 
steam launch; so that the committee feels that its work in this 
direction was thoroughly and intelligently performed. The com- 
mittee was accompanied by Alderman A. W. Beilfuss, Chair- 
man of the Special Park Commission, throughout its entire 
inspection of the lake shore, and by Alderman Charles M. Foell, 
the then Chairman of the Committee on Harbors, Wharves and 
Bridges, during its inspection of the shore line from the mouth 
of the Chicago river to Seventy-ninth street, south. 

The amount of beach inspected covers a distance of approx- 



9 

imately eighteen miles and includes all the shore line lying 
immediately in front of the densely populated parts of Chicago, 
and, hence, all the shore that is readily accessible for bathing 
purposes for any considerable number of persons. 

It goes without saying that this stretch of lake front offers 
to our city the finest opportunity for summer beach bathing of 
any city in the world, and the only remarkable feature about it 
is, that no systematic effort has ever been made to procure an 
adequate part of this magnificent beach as public playgrounds 
for bathing beaches and recreation piers. Indeed, the subject 
is so vast in its proportions and so far-reaching in its ultimate 
effect upon the life and health of our citizens and the future 
of our city that the really difficult task is to formulate a begin- 
ning small enough to make the scheme feasible and practicable 
from the start. 

Your committee deems it opportune at this time to call 
attention to the inaccessibility of the lake shore to the popula- 
tion of the west side and certain of the congested districts. The 
Local Transportation Committee of the City Council has already 
undertaken to largely remedy this condition by vigorous action 
looking toward the extension of our street-car system to a 
greater number of points on the lake front where bathing 
beaches are now located, or may in the future be established. 
The establishment of bathing beaches without providing trans- 
portation facilities to enable people to reach them would indeed 
be futile in the accomplishment of desired results, and we feel, 
therefore, that the Local Transportation Committee is entitled 
to the enthusiastic support of the Council and the public in its 
efforts to correct the existing evil. 

3. VAEIOUS PLANS CONSIDERED. 

With a view of being practical and in the hope of being able 
to recommend plans, the execution of which in part at least may 
be realized within a comparatively short time so as to give the 
people the use of the beaches now, when they most need them, 
the committee has endeavored to conduct its investigations 
along lines that harmonize with, and dovetail into, the various 
lake shore plans being perfected, or in contemplation, by the 



10 

Chicago Commercial Club, the South Park Commission, the 
Lincoln Park Commission, the Chicago Plan Commission and 
the Special Park Commission of the City of Chicago. 

This committee, in its desire to have the benefit of all the 
light available on this subject, has examined with painstaking 
care the plans of the Commercial Club for the improvement of 
the entire water front, and the plans of the South Park Com- 
mission for the improvement of that portion of the water front 
lying between Grant Park and Jackson Park, and the plans of 
the Lincoln Park Commission for the improvement of the north 
shore, — all these plans being in perfect harmony. In fact, the 
Commercial Club plans for the whole lake front have practically 
included the South Park plan for the south shore and the Lin- 
coln Park plan for the north shore, which has resulted in giving 
to us a general scheme so manifestly aesthetic, unique and 
utilitarian that it should be unhesitatingly adopted as the 
general substructure of any and all plans that have in contem- 
plation the improvement of Chicago as a residential and com- 
mercial city. 

In addition to the examination of the plans as above stated, 
the committee has had submitted to it and has examined the 
systems successfully adopted in New York city, Boston, Man- 
hattan Beach, St. Paul and a number of other cities of the 
United States. Among all those examined the City of Boston 
seems to have taken the lead in progressive, up-to-date and well- 
equipped out-door bathing beaches and '' floating baths," At its 
great ocean beach at Revere on a summer day, as many as 
150,000 persons enjoy the bathing privilege, and at Nantasket 
there is a beach equally as large as the one at Revere. 

In comparison with other cities, both ancient and modern, 
we do not believe we indulge in an exaggeration when we say 
that no city has ever been endowed by nature with a fairer 
heritage of water front than our own Chicago, and no city has 
ever made so little use of it. 

4. OPINION OF THE COEPOEATION COUNSEL.. 

Almost at the outset of the work on bathing beaches and 
recreation piers, the committee realized that no substantial 



11 

progress could be made in this matter without first ascertaining 
the true ownership and property rights in and to the lake front, 
the entire extent of which, outside of the park areas, was 
claimed by and in the possession of private persons and corpora- 
tions. The following correspondence with the Corporation 
Counsel and Mayor Busse explains fully the position of the 
committee at that time, and its efforts to make substantial 
progress : 

Chicago, August 17, 1909. 
Hon. Edward J. Brundage, Corporation Counsel, City Hall, City : 

Dear Mr. Brundage, — Referring to my conversation with you sev- 
eral days ago, I beg to request on behalf of the Council Committee on 
Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers that you furnish to us an opinion 
covering the following several points relating to matters now pending 
before said committee: 

1. It is proposed to establish a municipal bathing beach and recrea- 
tion pier at Montrose avenue ; the bathing beach to occupy the lake shore 
northerly from Montrose avenue along land now owned by the city, and 
the pier to extend out into lake from the stub end of Montrose avenue, 
said pier to be approximately of the same width as said avenue. 

2. It is proposed to establish a municipal bathing beach and recrea- 
tion pier at or near Twenty-second street, south; the bathing beach to 
occupy the shore southward from Twenty-second street to Twenty-fifth 
street, if possession of the beach can be obtained ; and the pier to extend 
out into lake from the stub end of Twenty-second street. It is proposed 
to arrange at this point for a dump for the waste material resulting from 
excavation and like causes; this material to be anchored by proper and 
suitable retaining walls or piles, so as to extend Twenty-second street 
into the lake, thus forming a quasi peninsula, or pier, which, in time, 
will evolve into a resort capable of affording accommodations for boating, 
bathing and other pleasures for vast numbers of Chicago citizens. 

3. It is proposed to arrange a similar dumping place off Fifty-first 
street, south, so as to create at that point a neck of land extending out 
into the lake to connect with Morgan Reef, the latter being a large 
"shallows" over which the water varies in depth from four to ten feet, 
and covering several hundred acres. Our plans contemplate the use of 
said Morgan Reef as a dumping ground until it is raised above the pres- 
ent surface of Lake Michigan and is converted into a beautiful island 
park or recreation ground. 

In connection with the foregoing our committee desires to be advised 
First: As to what rights, if any, the City of Chicago has to install, 
make and establish the aforesaid proposed bathing beaches, improve- 
ments and dumping grounds, and from what government, authority, 
organization, park commission or municipality (if any) permission must 
be first had and obtained to enable the city to carry out the improvements 
contemplated. 

Second: As to whether under the several Acts of the General Assem- 
bly of the State of Illinois enlarging the powers of the several park com- 



12 

missions with reference to the lake front submerged lands (Act approved 
May 14, 1903, in force July 1, 1903, and Act approved May 2, 1907, 
in force July 1, 1907, and other Acts, if any) the title to be submerged 
lands at the points designated is vested in the several park commissions; 
and 

Third: As to whether the lands so made by filling in, as proposed 
in the improvements contemplated, by the extension of street ends into 
and over the lake, will, when completed, belong to the several park com- 
missions or to the City of Chicago ; and 

Fourth: "Whether lands made by natural accretion adjacent to 
filled-in lands, and being part thereof, will belong to the city or to the 
park commissions or to the shore owner in front of whose lands such 
accretions are formed. This last or third alternative should be divided 
into (a) accretions formed in front of a shore owner, but connected with 
his present shore, and (b) accretions formed in front of a shore owner 
but separated from his present shore line by a stretch of water. 

Generally speaking, the committee desires such advice, information 
and suggestion from your department with reference to the foregoing as 
will enable it to intelligently carry out the proposed plans for bathing- 
beaches and amusement piers and at the same time fully protect and save 
harmless the city in reference to its legal rights in connection therewith. 

In addition to the foregoing, the committee desires to be advised spe- 
cially with reference to certain lands formed and being formed by accre- 
tion at Fifty-first street, south, immediately north of Fifty-first street 
and east of the Chicago Beach Hotel. These lands are all claimed by 
private parties, but if the city owns the stub end of Fifty-first street and 
the small park adjacent thereto, and if the accretions belong to the shore 
owner, then it would seem that the city would be entitled to all the accre- 
tions at Fifty-first street, south of an imaginary line extended into the 
lake at right angles with the general direction of the original shore line 
at that point; said imaginary line to start from the point where the 
north line of Fifty-first street bisects said original shore line. This 
would give the city a considerable portion of the accretions now formed 
and being formed at Fifty-first street, and would be of great benefit to 
our committee in arranging a connection at this point with Morgan Reef 
and the filling in thereof. 

The writer offers his apologies for the length of this communication, 
and presents as his only excuse therefor the great importance to the pub- 
lic of the questions herein presented. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) Theodore K. Long, 
For the Committee on Bathing Beaches and Amusement Piers. 

September 23, 1909. 

To the Ho7iorable, The Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation 
Piers of the City Council: 

Gentlemen, — Under date of August 17, 1909, Hon. Theodore K. 
Long requested the Corporation Counsel to furnish a legal opinion cover- 
ing several matters then pending before your committee, which request 
was subsequently assigned to me for consideration, and after some weeks 



13 

of investigation and study of tlie various questions presented by your 
committee, I have the honor to advise you in the premises as follows : 

1. As to jurisdiction over submerged lands. 

By virtue of Section 71, Par. 10, of the Cities and Villages Act, the 
City of Chicago has jurisdiction upon all waters within or bordering 
upon the city to the extent of three miles beyond the city limits; that 
this Act did not grant to the city ownership of the submerged lands, is 
clearly shown by the case of Bliss vs. Ward, 198 111. 104, in which the 
court said : 

"The Act of 1863, reducing the charter of the City of Chicago to one 
act and extending the corporate limits of the city so as to include the 
waters and body of Lake Michigan for a distance of one mile east of the 
shore, did not transfer title to the submerged lands within such extended 
limits to the City of Chicago." 

Of course, the court would doubtless, if the question were presented, 
reach the same conclusion in considering the Cities, Towns and Villages 
Act (the Act of 1872), which superseded the City Charter of 1863, wher- 
ever the same was repugnant thereto or inconsistent therewith. 

In many of the Illinois decisions, the title of the State in all of the 
submerged lands under Lake Michigan lying within the boundary limita- 
tions of Illinois, has been announced and affirmed. 

' ' The law seems to be well settled in the different States that the title 
to and dominion over lands covered by tide-waters within the boundaries 
of the several States belongs to each State wherein they are located. The 
State holds the fee in trust for the public. The doctrine established in 
regard to lands covered by tide-waters, has also been held applicable to 
lands bounded by fresh water on our large lakes. As early as 1860 the 
question arose in this State in regard to the proper construction to be 
placed upon a deed conveying land with Lake Michigan as a boundary 
line, and in disposing of this question, this court, in Seaman v. Smith, 24 
111. 521, held that a grant giving the ocean or a bay as the boundary line 
by the common law carries it down to the ordinary high- water mark; 
that the point at which the tide usually ebbs and flows is the boundary 
of a grant to the shore, and that the rule which governed in regard to 
lands on tide-water applied to lands on our great lakes. . . . The 
State holds the title in trust in its sovereign capacity for the entire 
people. . . . The governmental power of the State over these lands 
can not be relinquished or given away. The trust imposed upon the 
State must be kept and faithfully observed. ' ' 

People vs. Kirk, 162 111. 138. 

2. As to the right of the State to transfer title in submerged lands. 

Only in the subservience of public interests, as distinguished from 
private interests, can the alienation of submerged land in Lake Michigan 
be justified. 

During the past twenty years numerous instances have arisen in 
which the State of Illinois, by its Legislature, has vested portions of the 
submerged land in various municipalities, and since a consideration of 
these transfers is necessary to a proper understanding of the questions 
presented, it is pertinent to briefly mention some of the most important 
legislative enactments on this subject. 



14 

A. In 1889 the General Assembly authorized the Lincoln Park Board 
to extend a driveway over and upon the waters of Lake Michigan so 
long as the same did not interfere with navigation, commerce or the 
right of fishery. This Act also permitted the board to sell and convey 
the submerged land lying between the shore and the westerly boundary 
of the proposed driveway. 

Our Supreme Court, in the case of People v. Kirk (supra), sustained 
the validity of the Act, and asserted that in transferring the submerged 
land within the limitations named in the Act, the Legislature had not 
transcended the trust imposed upon it by law. 

B. Under the provisions of an Act passed by the Legislature, in 
force July 1, 1895, the Lincoln Park Commissioners were granted title 
to the submerged land from the Chicago river to the northern boundary 
of the Town of Lake View, upon the adoption of a plan for the enlarge- 
ment of Lincoln Park and the location of a driveway over and upon the 
body of Lake Michigan, The Act also provided for a method of acquir- 
ing the riparian rights of the various shore owners. Subsequent to the 
passage of this Act, the Lincoln Park Commissioners have, from time to 
time, adopted plans for the construction of the boulevard or driveway 
from point to point along the north shore and have had the boundary 
line fixed by them, affirmed by a decree of the Circuit Court in con- 
formity with the requirements of the Act. 

Attached hereto and marked " Exhibit A" is a letter from Mr. Charles 
A. Churan, attorney for the Lincoln Park Commissioners, setting out in 
detail the progress of the Lincoln Park Commissioners in this matter to 
date; also a plat (Marked "Exhibit B") which shows the proposed 
extensions and work under construction in the Lincoln Park district. 

Regardless of the fact that the Lincoln Park Commissioners had pro- 
ceeded under the authority of the last mentioned Act, and had adopted 
a plan for the occupation and improvement of the submerged lands Ijdng 
between the north line of Grace street extended to the northern limits of 
the Town of Lake View, Charles U. Gordon attempted to construct a 
pier upon the submerged lands along the shore of Lake Michigan adja- 
cent to Lot 13 of Simmons & Gordon's Addition to Chicago. The 
Supreme Court, in the case of Gordon vs. Winston, 181 111., 338, in affirm- 
ing the judgment of the Circuit Court enjoining the construction of the 
pier, held that the Park Board had a right to appropriate the submerged 
lands extending out to the line of navigation, and had the right to enjoin 
any acts on the part of Gordon which tended to encroach upon the pub- 
lic domain and gradually appropriate such property for his own use. 

C. In the year 1899 the State granted to the City of Chicago the 
land under the waters of the lake opposite Thirty-ninth street for the 
purpose of building and forever maintaining thereon a pumping station 
together with the necessary intakes for water with protecting piers there- 
for. (See Kurd's Revised Statutes, 1908, page 457.) 

D. By virtue of an Act in force July 1, 1903, the South Park Com- 
missioners were authorized to extend parks, boulevards or driveways bor- 
dering upon any public waters in this State, over and upon the bed of 
such public waters, provided that such extension should not interfere 
with the practical navigation of such public waters for the purpose of 
commerce, without due authority from the proper official of the United 
States Government having control thereof. The South Park Commis- 



15 

sioners were also given the right to connect parks within their juris- 
diction by constructing a boulevard, driveway or parkway over and 
upon the bed of such public waters and over and upon any lands 
penetrating such waters. 

Provision was made in this Act for the acquisition of riparian rights, 
compensation to be made out of the general revenue. 

E. Subsequent to the passage of the last mentioned Act, the com- 
missioners discovered that its provisions were incomplete, and that a 
different method of payment for the riparian rights should be made; 
whereupon, during the summer of 1907, a new bill was presented to the 
Legislature which became a law on July 1, 1907. 

As in the Act of 1903, the statute of 1907 trausfers title to the sub- 
merged land from Twelfth street to the north line of Jackson Park, when 
the Park Commissioners shall have acquired the riparian rights of the 
owners of any lands along the shore adjoining siich submerged lands 
and shall have agreed upon a dividing line, which dividing line is estab- 
lished or affirmed by the decree of the Circuit Court. 

It is to be noted that the acts granting the submerged lands along the 
north shore and the acts granting the submerged lands along the south 
shore to the various park commissioners differ materially in one respect, 
namely, the Lincoln Park Commissioners acquire title upon the adoption 
of a plan for the extension; whereas, the South Park Commissioners 
acquire no title until the riparian rights have been secured. 

My conclusion on this subject is concurred in by Mr. R. P. HoUett, 
who was attorney for the South Park Conunissioners at the time the 
Act of 1907 was introduced in the Legislature, as well as by Mr. John G. 
Drennan, who assisted in the drafting of the bill. 

In passing, it might be mentioned that during the last session of the 
General Assembly a bill was introduced and passed the Senate which 
granted the Chicago Exposition and Recreation Pier Company the right, 
power and authority to construct, maintain and operate a recreation pier 
upon the submerged lands in the waters of Lake Michigan extending 
easterly perpendicularly to the general trend of the shore of the lake to 
Thirty-first street with proper and necessary approaches. The persons 
interested in this bill, evidently also assumed that the South Park Com- 
missioners had at the time of the introduction of the bill acquired no 
interest in the submerged land at this point. 

My information is that the South Park Commissioners dropped the 
matter of extending a boulevard over the bed of the lake connecting 
Grant and Jackson Parks at the time when His Honor, Mayor Busse, 
appointed the Special Harbor Commission, since the park authorities 
had no desire to proceed with any scheme which would conflict with the 
plans of the city in the matter of the improvement of the lake front. 

F. In 1903, the Legislature also granted and conveyed to the South 
Park Commissioners the submerged and artificially made land lying 
within the " south boundary line of Jackson Park and the south line of 
Seventy-ninth street, as extended one thousand feet into Lake Michigan, 
and the line easterly of and parallel with the shore line of said lake " 
(and the shore line of said lake), and also within the "north line of 
Ninety-fifth street extended to its intersection with the boundary line of 
Indiana and Illinois, as extended, and the shore line of Lake Michigan." 



16 

3. EIGHTS OF RIPARIAN OWNERS. 

The Illinois courts have taken a severe stand in protecting the position 
of the State in the submerged land under the waters of Lake Michigan. 
The decisions bearing upon the rights of the shore owners are so clear 
and unequivocal that there can be no dispute as to the following proposi- 
tions : 

(a) The riparian owner has the right only to natural accretions and 
to access to the water in front of his property. 

(b) The riparian owner may erect structures on his own land to 
protect it from erosion if they do not interfere with navigation, but he 
has no right to build piers or other structures upon the submerged land 
to accomplish that purpose unless authorized by the State. (Revell vs. 
People of the State of Illinois, 177 111. 468.) 

Revell, in this case, attempted to build a pier parallel with the shore 
line, but beyond the water 's edge. This the court held was an unlawful 
and unwarranted act. 

(c) The riparian owner has no right to construct a pier out into 
the lake unless he owns the submerged land, or has permission from one 
having title thereto. (Cobb vs. Commrs. Lincoln Park, 202 111. 427.) 

(d) Neither a riparian owner nor any other person can by filling 
in without permission obtain title to made land where the title to soil 
upon which the filling was done was in the State. 

Farnham on Water Rights, Vol. 1, p. 339. 

Diedrich v. Northwestern Union R. Co., 42 Wis. 248. 

4. AS TO PROPOSED MONTROSE AVENUE BATHING BEACH. 

On the thirteenth day of February, 1906, the commissioners of 
Lincoln Park, by resolution, adopted a plan showing lines running along 
the shore of Lake Michigan from the north line of Sheridan Road (Bj^ron 
street), extended, to the north line of Montrose avenue, extended, said 
line having been agreed upon as dividing or boundary line between the 
streets named above and the land acquired by the Commissioners of 
Lincoln Park under the aforesaid Act of 1895. 

The commissioners of Lincoln Park, by resolution, passed on the 
thirteenth day of January, 1909, duly resolved that it was the intention 
of the commissioners of Lincoln Park in establishing said line to" dedicate 
to the public as public streets Montrose avenue, Marquette terrace, 
KenesaMi' terrace, Buena avenue, Gordon terrace. Bittersweet place and 
Irving Park avenue, as extended eastward to said permanent boundary 
line. 

The City of Chicago by ordinance duly passed on March 8, 1909, 
Council Proceedings, page 3172, accepted the aforesaid dedication. 

Thus, there can be no controversy between the city and the Lincoln 
Park Commissioners as to the eastern boundary line of Montrose avenue. 
The city also owns the lot lying north of Montrose avenue (including 
the shore front and riparian rights) upon which is located the Lake View 
Pumping Station. This lot is 230 feet in width along the shore and the 
street is sixty-six feet in width. 

The method of procedure which should be adopted prior to extending 
the pier into the lake at this point, will be considered below. 



17 

5. AS TO THE TWENTY-SECOND STREET BEACH AND PIERS. 

I am credibly informed that the Illinois Central Railroad Company 
has acquired all the riparian rights north of Fiftieth street and south 
of Twelfth street, excepting that portion of the lake shore which lies 
between the center line of Twenty-second street and a line produced 
into the lake from a point 160 feet south of Twenty-fifth street, which 
last-mentioned piece of land is part of the subject-matter of the com- 
mittee's inquiry. 

On July 27, 1852, the Illinois Central Railroad Company acquired 
from Stephen A. Douglas the property upon which is now located its 
right of way along the lake shore between the last-mentioned points, the 
deed expressly reserving in Douglas all title, right and ownership to land 
and water between the eastern line of said railroad and the center of Lake 
Michigan and bounded by due east lines drawn from the north and 
south ends of said tracts of land. A copy of this deed is hereto attached 
and marked "Exhibit C." 

Mary Morris Walker succeeded to all the interests of the late Stephen 
A. Douglas, and her heirs now claim to be the o^vners of this tract of 
land, a plat of which is hereto attached and marked "Exhibit D." The 
plat shows 2,240 feet of frontage of this piece of property. Inasmuch 
as the boundary of Twenty-second street is the west line of the right of 
way of the Illinois Central Railroad, the city could not contend it had 
any riparian rights in the submerged land easterly of the said company's 
right of way at this point, since contact with the water is necessary to 
the establishment of riparian rights. 

On the question of method of procedure for the construction of a 
pier and filling in at this location, see below under heading "Procedure." 

6. AS TO THE SITUATION AT FIFTY-FIRST STREET. 

The records of the Old Town of Hyde Park disclose that during the 
year 1871 a sewer was constructed extending into the lake at Fifty-first 
street, and a contract was awarded for the erection of a pier for the 
protection of the sewer. 

This pier, I learned from witnesses — old residents of the vicinity — 
was from time to time extended eastvfard along the north line of Fift}^- 
first street. The reports as to who extended the pier, running east and 
west into the lake, do not all agree. It is claimed by some that the 
Village of Hyde Park extended the pier, others assert that one James 
Morgan produced the result. 

The records of the Map Department, as well as the reports of the old 
residents of the vicinity, do, however, coincide as to the location of the 
shore line of Lake Michigan at this point during the last thirty-five years. 
The plat hereto attached, marked "Exhibit E," shows the shore line in 
1875 to have intersected Hyde Park boulevard (Fifty-first street) at a 
point about fifteen feet east of the east line of East End avenue. 

Old residents remember when the waters at this point washed up on 
East End avenue and partially covered the northerly two hundred feet 
thereof. The present shore line at Fifty-first street is about 380 feet 
east of the east line of East End avenue, as sho-\vn on the two plats 
hereto attached and marked "Exhibit F" and "Exhibit G," respectively. 
Practically all of the land which lies north of Fifty-first street and east 



18 

of a pier running north and south extending from the east and west 
pier above referred to has been made within the last twenty-five years. 

In 1882 the aforesaid James Morgan constructed this north and south 
pier, which, taken in connection with the east and west pier, forms an 
L-shape projection into the lake. Upon the construction of the north 
and south pier, the waves and wind from the north carrie-d in vast quan- 
tities of sand which were deposited north of Fifty-first street; that 
Morgan himself made the greater part of this land can not be successfully 
denied. It is said that he would permit no fishermen, excepting those 
in his employ, to fish off the pier, nor would he allow any boat to land or 
tie up at this pier. Shortly after the construction of the pier, Morgan 
erected thereon a dredge and scooped the sand from the bottom of the 
lake outside the pier, and carrying it over the pier deposited it in the 
inside shallow water until, when his work was completed, the land 
extended out into the lake north from the east and west pier a distance 
of about 320 feet, as shown on the plat submitted. The excess sand he is 
said to have sold, the revenue therefrom amounting to as much as $100 
a day, according to the reports of those familiar with the facts. 

Under the law, this land which was made by filling in, as well as the 
land which was produced by the action of the waves in beating up against 
the L-shaped projection, could not become the property of James Mor- 
gan. What natural accretions were produced by the natural action of the 
wind and waves have been so commingled with the artificial accretions 
and made land as to become a part thereof, and, under the decisions 
above cited, the State of Illinois, undoubtedly, has become vested with all 
the land beyond the limitations of the boundaries defining Morgan's 
possession along Fifty-first street on the north side of Fifty-first street 
east of the west line of East End avenue extended. 

7. AS TO THE RECLAMATION OF SUBMERGED LAND KNOWN AS " MORGAN'S 

REEF. ' ' 

If the city were granted permission to fill in the lake from the shoal 
waters opposite Fifty-first street, the title to such land would be vested in 
the city and the shore owner would have no claim or right thereto. 

"An island arising in navigable water and afterward becoming 
joined to one shore belongs to the State and not to the owner of the 
shore, and the shore owner will have title only to such portion of the new 
land as was formed by accretions to his shore. ' ' 

Farnham, Vol. 1, p. 276. 

' * If the process is such that an island first arises from the water and 
afterward becomes connected to the land by the addition of accretions 
to it, the title to the island will not vest in the riparian owner. ' ' 

Farnham, Vol. 1, p. 323. 

"Imperceptible accumulation of soil upon the shores of an island in 
the great lakes whereby it is enlarged belongs to the owner, but if the 
island first arises from the water and afterward becomes connected to 
that of the private proprietor it would not belong to him, but to the 
State." 

People vs. Warner, 116 Mich. 228. 



19 

"To entitle the riparian owner to the land, the water must begin to 
recede from his land. It is not sufficient if the recession begins at some 
other point and finally reaches his land." 

Farnham, Vol. 1, p. 322. 

The title of the shore owner is not established where it appears that 
as the waters receded they at first left islands separated from the land of 
the shore owner and from each other by squales or depressions in which 
the water remained for some time before the whole tract became dry." 

Hammond vs. Sheppard, 186 111. 235. 

The riparian owner acquires only the natural accretions which are 
adjacent to and in contact with his shore boundary. 

8. POWER OF THE CITY TO ESTABLISH BATHING BEACHES. 

Section 6 of the Act of May 18, 1905, relating to the City of Chicago, 
empowers the city to acquire, by purchase or otherwise, municipal parks, 
playgrounds, public beaches and bathing places and improve, equip, 
maintain and regulate the same. 

Section 7 of said Act authorizes the city to exercise the right of 
eminent domain by condemnation proceedings in conformity with the 
provisions of the Constitution and statutes of the State of Illinois for 
the acquirement of property useful, advantageous or desirable for 
municipal purposes, and the procedure in such cases, the statutes provide, 
shall be, as nearly as may be, like that provided for in the Act entitled 
"An Act Concerning Local Improvements," approved June 4, 1897, in 
force July 1, 1897, as now or hereafter from time to time amended. 

It can not be successfully maintained but that the city if it secures 
permission from the proper authorities has the power to proceed with 
the establishment of bathing beaches and recreation piers as necessary 
adjuncts thereto. 

PROCEDURE. 



Inasmuch as the Lincoln Park Commissioners unquestionably have 
title to the submerged land along the north shore from Byron street 
(now Sheridan Road), extended, to the north line of Montrose avenue, 
extended, their consent should be first had and obtained before any 
improvement is made at this point. In my opinion, legislative enactment 
in favor of the city would not be necessary for the construction of this 
pier. 

B. 

No work should be done by the city at Twenty-second street without 
permission (1) from the Government; (2) from the heirs of Mary 
Morris Walker ; (3) from the South Park Commissioners ; and (4) from 
the State of Illinois. 

Notwithstanding what has been heretofore stated, I believe that the 
various park authorities should be consulted and their cooperation and 
permission secured, as a condition precedent to the construction of any 
pier in or over the submerged land. 



20 



The City of Chicago should render all possible assistance to the State 
of Illinois in securing for the State possession of the made land, hereto- 
fore mentioned, north of Fifty-first street, and upon the State main- 
taining its title therein, permission of the Legislature, as well as of the 
South Park authorities, should be obtained before any construction work 
or filling in is commenced at this point. 

D. 

Upon an understanding with the South Park Commissioners, a bill 
should be introduced in the Legislature by force of which the city would 
be authorized to fill in the shallows opposite Fifty-first street for park 
and recreation and bathing-beach purposes. 

This land, when filled in, as well as the land proposed to be made by 
dumping at Twenty -second street, will, in the event permission is secured 
from the proper authorities for the doing of the contemplated work, 
unquestionably become the property of the City of Chicago. 

But before any improvements in the nature of piers, the making of 
islands in the lake, or other obstructions are commenced, authority from 
the Secretary of War should be secured. Permission from the War 
Department for the construction of piers does not override the rights of 
the State in the submerged land, but, however, amounts to a declaration 
by the Government that the proposed structure Avill not interfere ^dth 
navigation. (Cohh vs. Commrs. Lincoln Park, supra.) 

SUGGESTIONS. 

I take the liberty of adding to this communication that the committee 
might well cooperate with the Special Park Commission in urging the 
next session of the General Assembly to authorize the City of Chicago 
to construct a pier at Seventy-ninth street, and to reclaim the large 
tract of submerged land, which, when reclaimed, will be an imposing- 
addition, in the way of a park, to the present small bathing beach located 
just south of Seventy-ninth street. 

I note, by the daily papers, that Alderman Jones proposes that the 
city should purchase the lake frontage from the south line of the South 
Shore Country Club property to Seventy-ninth street and should hold 
the same for bathing-beach purposes. 

In this connection, I desire to call the attention of the committee to 
the aforementioned Act of 1903, turning over all the submerged land 
between the aforesaid points to the South Park Commissioners. This 
board should be consulted before the city proceeds with this project. 

The writer would be glad to attend the meeting of your committee 
and explain in detail any portion of this communication which may 
need elucidation or elaboration. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Howard W. Hayes, 
Assistant Corporation Coimsel. 
Approved : 

Edward J. Brundage, 

Corporation Counsel. 



21 

October 1, 1909. 
Mr. Hoivard W. Hayes, Assistant Corporation Counsel, through Hon. 
Edward J. Brundage, Corporation Counsel: 

Dear Sir, — On behalf of the Committee on Bathing Beaches and 
Amusement Piers, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your opinion dated 
September 25, 1909, forwarded in response to my letter of August 17. 

It is, perhaps, not out of place for me to say at this time that our 
committee desires to express its appreciation and commendation of the 
vast amount of care, investigation and painstaking detail shown in the 
preparation of the opinion forwarded to us. 

Referring to subdivision 8 of said opinion entitled ' ' Power of the 
City to Establish Bathing Beaches," you say: 

""Section 6 of the Act of May 18, 1905, relating to the City of Chi- 
cago empowers the city to acquire by purchase or otherwise, municipal 
parks, playgrounds, public beaches and bathing places, and improve, 
equip, maintain and regulate the same. 

"Section 7 of said Act authorizes the city to exercise the right of 
eminent domain by condemnation proceedings in conformity with the 
provisions of the Constitution and statutes of the State of Illinois for the 
acquirement of property useful, advantageous or desirable for municipal 
purposes, and the procedure in such cases, the statutes provide, shall be, 
as nearly as may be, like that provided for in the Act entitled, 'An Act 
Concerning Local Improvements,' approved June 4, 1897, in force July 
1, 1897, as now or hereafter from time to time amended. ' ' 

The fox'egoing quotation becomes of special importance to our com- 
mittee when considered in connection with the possible procedure on 
the part of the city to acquire by condemnation the riparian rights over 
such submerged lands as may be acquired from the State for bathing 
beaches and amusement piers. 

The South Park Board not having acquired title to submerged lands 
under the Acts of 1903 and 1907, it would greatly simplify the procedure 
of our committee if, upon the acquisition of the title to submerged lands, 
the city could, by its right of eminent domain, or otherwise, condemn the 
riparian rights of adjacent owners in the submerged lands so acquired. 

Our committee would therefore be pleased to have you advise it 
further and more in detail with reference to the powers of the city to 
condemn riparian rights in submerged lands, the title of which lands may 
be acquired by legislative grant or transfer, from the State to the city. 

Yours very truly, 

Theodore K. Long, 
For the Committee on Bathing Beaches and Amusement Piers. 

In re POWERS CONFERRED UPON THE CITY BY SECTIONS 
6 AND 7 O'F AN ACT RELATING TO THE CITY OF CHI- 
CAGO. 

October 30, 1909. 
Hon. Theodore K. Long, Commiittee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation 
Piers : 

Dear Sir, — The Corporation Counsel has directed me to reply to 
your communicaton of October 1, 1909, in which you request an opinion 
upon the power of the city "to acquire by condemnation the riparian 



22 

rights over submerged land. ' ' I note, particularly, that you desire tx) be 
advised with reference to the extent of the authority granted to the City 
of Chicago by virtue of sections 6 and 7 of an Act of the Legislature of 
May 18, 1905, relating to the City of Chicago. 

You will recall that by virtue of Section 6 of said Aet the city is 
empowered ' ' to acquire by purchase or otherwise, municipal parks, play- 
grounds, bathing beaches and bathing places" and "improve, equip, 
maintain and regulate the same ' ' ; and that by Section 7 of said Act the 
city is authorized ' ' to exercise the right of eminent domain by condemna- 
tion proceedings in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution 
and the statutes of the State of Illinois for the acquirement of property 
useful, advantageous or desirable for municipal purposes," the pro- 
cedure to be " as nearly as may be like that provided in the Act entitled 
' An Act Concerning Local Improvements ', ' ' etc. 

Prior to the enactment of the aforesaid statute the City of Chicago 
could not acquire property for the purposes aforesaid by private pur- 
chase, inasmuch as, according to the opinion of the Supreme Court, in 
the case of Snydacker v. Village of West Hammond, 225 111. 154, such 
procedure "would lead to favoritism, corruption, private bargain and 
the exercise of improper influence." 

The methods prescribed by statute for the acquisition of real estate 
by a municipality, namely, by prescription, dedication and condemna- 
tion, are generally exclusive methods, hence the authority vested in the 
city by virtue of the provisions of Section 6 is of material advantage 
in the plan which your committee has under consideration. 

Section 7 of the aforesaid act can be of little or no significance in 
determining the course to be adopted for the acquiring of bathing-beach 
sites, for when analyzed and considered, the Legislature has merely per- 
mitted the city to exercise the right of eminent domain only where prop- 
erty is acquired which is "useful, advantageous or desirable for munic- 
ipal purposes" where the purpose itself when carried out would be a 
local improvement. A local improvement within the meaning of the 
statute is a public improvement which by reason of its being confined 
to a locality, enhances the value of adjacent property as distinguished 
from the benefits diffused by it throughout the municipality. 

I can find no reported case in which it has been held that the estab- 
lishment of a bathing beach is considered a local improvement, 

I have discussed the question herein involved at length with Mr. 
George A. Mason, attorney for the Board of Local Improvements, and 
he concurs with me in the view that I have taken, namely, that Section 7 
above referred to confers no advantage upon your committee in its 
proposed plan. I must, therefore, advise your committee that, even 
though the city should acquire the title to the submerged land under the 
waters of Lake Michigan, the only procedure by which it is empowered 
to secure either the riparian rights or the real estate of the shore owners 
is by dedication or other form of donation, lease or other form of eon- 
tract. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Howard W. Hayes, 
Assistant Corporation Counsel. 
Approved : 

Edward J. Brundage, 

Corporation Counsel. 



23 

5. COMMUNICATION WITH MAYOR BUSSE. 

September 25, 1909. 
Hon. Fred A. Busse, Mayor of Chicago: 

Dear Sir, — Referring to a recent conversation had with you concern- 
ing certain conditions which pertain relative to sundry submerged lands 
and "made" lands along the lake shore between the mouth of the 
Chicago river and Seventy-ninth street, the writer begs to invite your 
attention to the following: 

You, of course, are advised of the somewhat unsettled condition of 
the ownership of the lake frontage caused by extensive filling in from 
time to time of the submerged lands. Large areas of these submerged 
lands have been filled in and are now in process of being filled in and are 
taken po'^session of by private parties without authority of law, as the 
writer believes, and day by day, week by week, and month by month, 
these aggre'='sive private interests advance further and further into and 
over the waters of the lake, appropriating to their own uses the common 
heritage of the people, the most valuable, attractive and artistic lake 
water frontage ever possessed by a free city. 

Between Grant Park and Twenty-second street, between Forty-seventh 
street and Fifty-first street and between Fifty-third street and Jackson 
Park this process of the extension of private dominion over the natural 
recreation beaches and playgrounds of the city goes steadily, rapidly 
and persistently forward. These aggressive private interests never 
slumber ; their paid agents and attorneys are ever on the alert to extend 
their juri'=^diction lakeward, while in the meantime the public, inactive 
and =^lothful, its representatives ever changing by the change in political 
administration, sleeps on its rights and the people's heritage pays the 
penalty. 

In connection with the work of the Special Committee on Bathing 
Beaches and Amu'='ement Piers, the writer's attention was first directed 
to this subiect, and as a member of such committee, and with the consent 
and approval of the chairman thereof, the writer with a view of bringing 
some order, if possible, out of the general chaos that seemed to pertain 
relative to the lake front, addressed a letter of inquiry to the Corpora- 
tion Counsel, a copy of which letter, together with the reply thereto, is 
hereto appended. 

While from the aforesaid opinion of the Corporation Counsel it 
would seem that title to the submerged lands is clearly vested in the 
State or in the State's grantee, yet by reason of the existing riparian 
rights in the adjacent owners, and sundry claims asserted over lands 
formed by accretion or otherwise, the exact legal dividing line between 
the private owner, the State, the City of Chicago and the South Park 
Board is, to say the least, sufficiently obscure to warrant an effort on 
the part of the city and the various parties in interest to get together 
and to make a proper, final and definite adjustment of the matter. 

As a question of practical utility it is probably not material to the 
people as a whole whether the legal title vests in the State, the Park 
Board or the City of Chicago, so long as the title so vested is held in 
trust for all the people, and so long as the party so holding title will see 
to it that the lake front is not alienated, or encroached upon for private 
uses. 



24 

The lake front submerged lands should not be sold, bartered or given 
away at any price. No sum imaginable can compensate the people for 
the loss of these lands as their natural playgrounds and bathing beaches, 
and the aggressive private interests which have from time to time 
asserted dominion over them must be removed therefrom. 

While it would seem from the aforesaid opinion of the Corporation 
Counsel that the South Park Board has the right under the Acts of 1903 
and 1907 to acquire title to and possession of the submerged lands 
between Grant Park and Jackson Park, nothing has as yet been done 
by said park board toward acquiring such title; so that it is entirely 
proper for the city, as representing the whole people, to take the initia- 
tive and either acquire title by condemnation proceedings or otherwise, 
or inspire the South Park Board to a keener conception of its oppor-' 
tunities in this behalf. 

With a view of inspiring some action toward the adjustment of these 
matters, the writer on July 30 last suggested to the chairman of the 
South Park Board the appointment of a joint high commission com- 
posed of representatives from the South Park Board, the City Council 
and sundry others in interest, to confer with commissioners to be 
appointed by the Illinois Central Eailway Company and others making 
claim to the lake frontage, in the hope that such commissioners might 
find a way to compel the early settlement of the disputed interests 
involved. Nothing, however, practical resulted from the foregoing sug- 
gestion. 

It is extremely important that this whole matter of lake frontage be 
settled at the earliest date feasible, for the reason that it appears from 
authentic sources that the natural filling in of the lake frontage resulting 
from the dumping of garbage and excavation material amounts, approx- 
imately, to twenty acres per annum. It is apparent that this very valu- 
able acquisition of made land should not inure to the benefit of private 
parties, but should be converted into park areas, bathing beaches and 
pleasure grounds for the people of Chicago and the State of Illinois. 
This can only be done by working in conformity with an intelligent and 
orderly plan based upon a fixed ownership of the lake shore frontage ; and 
the first special requisite therefor, as preliminary to any plan, is the 
settlement and adjustment of the ownership of the lake shore. 

In pursuance, therefore, of the cordial interest expressed by Your 
Honor to the writer on this subject and your hearty willingness to urge 
a final adjustment thereof, I beg to lay the whole matter before you for 
such action or recommendation as you may deem expedient and wise in 
the premises. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Theodore K. Loi^g. 

Mayor's Office, 
Chicago, September 27, 1909. 
To the Honorable, the City Council: 

Gentlemen, — I herewith transmit to your Honorable Body a com- 
munication from Hon. Theodore K. Long, which concerns submerged and 
''made" lands along the lake shore between the mouth of the Chicago 
river and Seventy-ninth street, together with an opinion of the Corpora- 
tion Counsel addressed to the Committee on Bathing Beaches and 



25 

Recreation Piers, which bears on the aforesaid subject, also a letter of 
Alderman Long addressed to the Corporation Counsel, requesting the 
submission of the opinion. 

Inasmuch as it appears, both from the opinion of the Corporation 
Counsel as well as from the communication of Alderman Long, that there 
are many unlawful encroachments along the shores of Lake Michigan 
south of Twelfth street, one conclusion necessarily follows: Someone 
should proceed Avith all possible diligence to obtain for the people both 
title and undisputed possession to the land which belongs to them. 

Diversity of jurisdiction should not stand in the way of speedy 
action. The State of Illinois, the South Park Commissioners and the City 
of Chicago should unite in preserving for the people their common 
interest. 

Since I do not believe that formalities should retard any movement 
which inures to the public benefit, I respectfully request that you author- 
ize the Mayor to invite a conference consisting of representatives of the 
State of Illinois, of the South Park Board, the Lincoln Park Board, the 
Sanitary District and of the City of Chicago, who shall assemble for the 
purpose of considering the best method of procedure for the reclamation 
of the lands in which each representative is, in a measure interested, and 
which have been appropriated by others. Such a conference should be 
authorized to consider the advisability of a settlement and adjustment 
of the claims made by riparian owners along the lake shore between the 
points aforesaid. 

That a conference of this character can materially assist the City of 
Chicago in its plan for the establishment of bathing beaches and recrea- 
tion piers can not be denied, and it is with the hope that the sympathy 
of the aforesaid authorities is with Chicago in this movement that I 
submit the foregoing proposition to your Honorable Body. 

Respectfully, 

Fred A. Busse, 

Mayor. 

6. LEGAL PKOCEEDINGS AGAINST TRESPASSING SHORE OWNERS. 

In pursuance of the foregoing, the City Council on Septem- 
ber 27, 1909 (See Council Proceedings, p. 1157), authorized the 
Mayor to invite representatives to a conference, as suggested 
in Ms communication. After repeated, unavailing efforts to 
effectuate results in this manner, it was concluded that more 
substantial progress could be made by the commencement of 
legal proceedings against trespassing shore owners than in any 
other way, and as the Committee on Bathing Beaches and 
Recreation Piers had no power to proceed at law, the following 
resolution was prepared and presented to the City Council by 
Theodore K. Long, January 25, 1910, and was unanimously 
adopted. 



26 

Wheras, Sundry private interests and corporations claim ownership 
to large portions of the shore of Lake Michigan, between Indiana State 
line on the south and Devon avenue on the north ; and 

Whereas, The said lake shore should be forever held by the City of 
Chicago or by the several park boards within said city, in trust for all the 
people, for recreation and park purposes; 

Resolved, That the Mayor be and he is hereby authorized to appoint 
a commission of three, to be known as the ' ' Lake Shore Reclamation Com- 
mission," whose duty it shall be to make such investigations and insti- 
tute and carry on such proceedings at law and in equity as in the judg- 
ment of said commission may be deemed necessary or advisable to pro- 
cure title and possession to said lake shore for the said city or park 
boards, and especially to that portion thereof lying between Jackson 
Park and Grant Park, and to report its proceedings to this Council. 
(Page 2786 C. P. 1909-10.) 

In accordance with the foregoing resolution, the Mayor 
appointed as said commission, Theodore K. Long, Chairman, 
E. J. Brundage and Dr. W. A. Evans. 

The above commission, immediately after its appointment, 
set to work to procure the necessary data upon which to base 
legal action, and after an extended preliminary investigation 
and repeated conferences held between the representatives of 
the Lake Shore Reclamation Commission, the office of the Attor- 
ney-General and the office of the State's Attorney of Cook 
Cook county, suit was commenced April 2, 1910, in the Superior 
Court of Cook County, in the name of the State of Illinois, to 
recover for the use of the public the made lands at Fifty-first 
street and the lake, east of the Beach Hotel. And later, May 19, 
1910, six additional suits were commenced in the same court, the 
purpose of these suits being to recover, for the use of the public, 
all that portion of the shore of Lake Michigan between Grant 
Park, on the north, and Jackson Park, on the south. 

7. TENTATIVE SCHEME FOR BATHING BEACHES. 

Pending the efforts of the Lake Shore Reclamation Commis- 
sion, the Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers 
did not relax in its efforts to formulate plans for bathing 
beaches, and with a view of working in harmony with the Chi- 
cago Commercial Club plan, numerous conferences were held 
with different members of the plan commission. 

As early as July 21, 1909, a conference was had with Mr. 
Daniel H. Burnham and Mr. Joy Morton, at which it was agreed 



27 

to develop the bathing-beach proposition, in so far as practicable, 
along lines that would harmonize with all other work contem- 
plated along the lake shore, and with this purpose in view the 
Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers was cour- 
teously accorded the assistance of the efficient corps of experts 
of the Commercial Club, under the direction of Mr. Edward H. 
Bennett, to whom the commission is greatly indebted for the 
interest shown in the preparation of detail plans and drawings. 
Early in the month of August, 1909, the committee adopted 
the following tentative scheme for bathing beaches : 

1. Montrose Avenue. — The city has, at Montrose avenue, a lot 
fronting on the beach of 50 feet immediately adjacent to the avenue, 
which, with the butt end of Montrose avenue, makes the city frontage 

feet. The city should acquire at this point by purchase about four 

hundred feet additional adjoining the city's lot on the north so as to 
give a bathing beach frontage of feet. 

This is an ideal place for the construction of a recreation pier. The 
pier should be constructed so as to carry out Montrose avenue into the 
lake a distance of about one thousand feet. This pier would serve also 
the purpose of a breakwater and protection to the beach. 

2. DivERSET Boulevard. — The Lincoln Park Board has a beach 
frontage of approximately twelve hundred feet, extending from the 
south side of Diversey boulevard, as extended east, south to the Daily 
News Sanitarium. This is one of the most accessible and most desirable 
beaches on the north side and will accommodate a large number of 
persons. All the committee can do is to urge the Lincoln Park Board to 
push its improvements as rapidly as possible. 

3. Ohio Street, — The city should acquire, somewhere in the 
vicinity, a beach for bathing purposes sufficient to accommodate the 
thickly settled district immediately west and adjacent thereto. This 
beach should be fitted up in an inexpensive manner with stationery bath- 
houses, and, probably, with a "floating bath." 

4. Twenty-fifth Street. — The city maintains, at this point, a 
small bathing beach under the Special Park Commission. This beach 
should be enlarged and extended in a northerly direction to Twenty- 
second street so as to accommodate larger numbers from the congested 
districts on the south side. The frontage here should be obtained either 
by the city direct or through the South Park Commission. 

At this point, and immediately off Twenty-second street, the city 
should make a start to provide for the filling in for the construction of 
the great recreation pier located here by the plan of the Chicago Com- 
mercial Club. This seems to be an ideal location for a pier of this char- 
acter and will become, when completed, in all probability, the most pop- 
ular resort on the lake front. 

5. Thirty-ninth Street. — At this point the City has a pumping 
station and we are advised that it is permitted under the law to fill in 
and make land adjacent to the land occupied by its pumping station. 



28 

This is a very accessible point for the large population of the south side 
and should be connected by a tunnel under the Illinois Central tracks 
with the small park which the City has on the west side of the tracks. 

6. FiFTY-FiEST Street — Morgan Reef. — The committee believes 
that action should be taken to provide for filling in Morgan Reef with 
a view of providing a place for the economical deposit of Chicago 's waste 
excavation material, and, at the same time, converting such material into 
an island to be used for park purposes. 

7. Jackson Park. — Next to the Lincoln Park site, referred to above, 
the most ideal location for a bathing beach along the lake shore is in 
Jackson Park immediately north of the inlet to the yacht harbor north 
of the old Convent LaRabida. 

The committee has been unofficially informed that the South Park 
Commissioners have in preparation elaborate plans for the construction 
of an extensive bathing beach at this point, with a recreation pier extend- 
ing far out into the lake. 

8. Seventy-ninth Street. — At this point the City has a small park 
and bathing beach with a fairly well equipped bathhouse. Provision 
should be made to procure about four hundred feet more of the beach, 
immediately north of the city's holdings, so as to enlarge the capacity 
of this beach. 

9. Chicago River. — The committee has under consideration the 
selection of a suitable site somewhere on the Chicago river, in the most 
congested district, for the location of a " floating bath. ' ' 

8. EEPORT AND ESTIMATES OE CITY ENGINEEE. 

With a view of ascertaining the cost of starting the proposed 
work at Montrose avenue on the north side, and Twenty-second 
street and Morgan Eeef on the south side, the City Engineer 
was called upon to prepare designs and estimates, which were 
furnished to said committee December 2, 1909, as follows: 

December 2, 1909. 

Hon. Winfield P. Dunn and Hon. Theodore K. Long, Committee on 
Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers: 
Gentlemen, — Complying with your request, I have made some 
designs and estimates of costs for recreation piers and bathing beaches 
at Montrose boulevard and at Twenty-second street and also plans for a 
proposed island at the so-called Morgan Shoal opposite Forty-eighth 
street, and beg to submit same herewith for your consideration. 

MONTROSE BOULEVARD. 

The construction at Montrose boulevard has been estimated at $22,000 
for a pier five hundred feet long with a total length of dock line for 
landing purposes 330 lineal feet. The pier is to be 66 feet wide at an 
elevation of 10 feet above Chicago datum, with a concrete parapet and 
walk on the north side and concrete sidewalk on the south side. 



29 

It has been assumed that the pier can be built in the following 
manner : For the first 150 feet out from the shore, to a depth of water 
less than three feet below datum, a wave breaker is built by filling in 
between two rows of sheet piling, about eight feet apart and four feet 
high, along a line somewhat to the north of the center line of pier. The 
sheet piling is short and can be driven by hand. The filling in should 
then start on the north side of wave breaker, and some of the materal 
will be Vv'ashed over and fill in on the south side, and when sufficient fill is 
dumped on the north side the south side should also be filled in. Then, 
or somewhat earlier, the piles for the next 175 feet should be driven in 
line v/ith the sheet pile construction, out to a depth of water about six 
feet below datum, with a fifty-foot cross-row plumb to the first mentioned 
row to the north. The piles are to be driven in two rows, 2^2 feet center 
to center, piles in each row to be 18 inches center to center, leaving about 
8 inches clear opening; piles in other row covering this opening about 
twenty inches away. The fill should then be continued on the north side 
of this wave breaker, and the waves will carry a good deal of same to the 
south side. The fillings should be done for the full width at once, as a 
long narrow ridge would be more exposed to the action of the waves. 
If it be found that two much fill is shifted to the south side, the piles can 
be boarded up as the work progresses when sufficient material has been 
deposited on the south side as backing for same. If real large waves 
should occur during construction some repairs will, of course, have to be 
made. 

The outer 175 feet of pier, to a depth of water about ten feet below 
datum, should be constructed similarly with cross-row forty feet from end, 
except that a regular dock line will have to be built after sufficient fill 
has been dumped to steady the wave-breaking piles to make them act as 
anchor piles for the dock line south and east of same. The piles for the 
dock line can be driven at an earlier date to help in retaining the fill, but 
the sheet piling should preferably be put in later, so as to produce a 
neat dock line. 

The pier is designed perpendicular to the general shore line, and it 
is assumed that the lake will fill in the beach to a shallower basin in 
time, but it may be necessary to pave the outer part of the north side 
of the beach for some distance, not included in the main estimate of 
$19,000. 

A second row of piles for wave break could be driven, located under 
the future parapet in the outer part of pier, if it is found that the first 
row does not protect the filling well enough. Three thousand dollars 
ought to cover this, as well as paving and extra filling. This amount is 
included in the estimate as contingencies. 

TWENTY-SECOND STREET. 

The pier has been designed as a direct prolongation of Twenty-second 
street, sixty-six feet wide, with an increase of one hundred feet at lake 
end, and seven hundred feet extreme length, with a subway under the 
Illinois Central Railroad tracks for pedestrians. There will be at least 
four hundred feet of landing space for steamers for a long time to come. 

The pier falls within the lines of the City Beautiful Plan and is con- 
structed in the same manner as the Illinois Central Railroad dock on the 
north side of the pier, as w^ell as outer end and return. This construction 



30 

consists of piles driven closely in two rows about ten to fifteen feet apart 
and with one walling timber in the shallower parts and two in the deeper 
along each line, the rows being cross-connected with rods and the space 
between filled with rip-rap stone. When the fill is in place up to a few 
feet above water, the upper part of this breakwater is cut off and a solid 
timber crib put on from about the water level, made out of 12 by 12 inch 
timbers with 12 by 12 inch cross timbers drift bolted together and filled 
with stone. The filling is then continued to an elevation ten feet above 
datum. The top of this crib should be planked over and railing put on, 
so that it can be used for a walk. A concrete walk is also included in the 
estimate. The fill for the greater part of the beach must be sand brought 
there by scows or by Illinois Central Railroad. Part of the total fill can 
be dumped direct from scows, but a big part of same must be rehandled. 
Such material as is delivered by the Illinois Central Railroad can be 
dumped direct, and the subway can be used for dump cars running on 
rails from Twenty-second street, when sufficient fill has been placed 
at the opening on pier site. The dumping ground established by the 
Secretary of War is located just to the north of the pier, and as long as 
this dumping of material continues the water at the bathing beach will 
be more or less contaminated. 

It may not be necessary to build the upper part of crib for a distance 
of five hundred to six hundred feet out from the shore if ground has 
been made to the north of it in time. 

The construction of pier and fill has been estimated at $63,000. The 
construction, as outlined, is somewhat more expensive than that of 
Montrose boulevard, but the depth of water is already at the start as 
deep as the lake end of the Montrose pier, and increases to 14% feet 
below datum. 

MORGAN SHOAL ISLAND. 

The conditions for the making of an island at this place are more or 
less difficult owing to the irregular and rocky bottom. The plans as 
proposed provide for an island to be formed around the shoal and of 
about forty-five acres area. Owing to the limited capacity of the bridge 
that would have to lead to this island and also on account of the difficulty 
in dumping material direct at this place so that dumpings in the lake 
would probably have to be rehandled, it would take a good many years 
to build the island as proposed. The outline of the island falls within 
the City Beautiful Plan. 

The depth of water at the site varies from four to fifteen feet below 
city datum. The method proposed for forming the island is as follows : 
A ridge is made over the highest parts of the lake bottom as a center rib 
of the island with cross ridges to both sides, forming pockets for the 
deposited fill, with a rock-filled crib forming about a half circle on the 
side toward the shore, sunk in about twelve feet of water with rip-rap 
stones on both sides. 

The ridges are supposed to be made of good-sized stones, bought from 
the Sanitary District, eight feet wide on top, five feet above water, and 
sloping one foot vertically in two feet horizontally. The rock-filled crib 
will be four feet above water and sixteen feet wide, built of 12 by 12 inch 
side timbers (half open) and cross timbers, made in sections, and sunk, 
but connected, above water, and floored over so that it can be used as a 
landing two thousand feet long. 



31 

The connection with the shore consists of a trestle built on cribs 
^vhere the bottom is rock and the balance pile trestle to the existing pier 
at the Fifty-first Street Bathing Beach; this pier to be Avidened to the 
same width as the trestle, eighteen feet. This trestle is not intended as 
a permanent bridge, but will be kept in repair and used during con- 
struction for wagon traffic for which channel iron tracks are provided. 

The first year the south half of the crib and the trestle should be 
built, as well as the two corresponding ridges forming the southwesterly 
pocket, and say, fifty thousand cubic yards dumped in place. This will 
cost about $50,000. During the next four years the filling in should be 
continued and extended over the adjoining western pocket, completing 
the timber crib and ridge for same. The cost of this work is estimated 
at $140,000, or $35,000 for each of the four years. Total for five years 
$190,000 for sixteen acres. In the following five years the middle 
pockets should be built and filled at a cost of about $30,000 a year. 
Total cost in ten years for thirty acres $340,000. The third five-year 
period should finish this work at a cost of about $40,000 a year. Total 
cost therefor $540,000, or about $12,000 per acre, or for a 25 by 125-foot 
lot with share of the streets and alleys $1,250. 

In course of time the island is likely to increase by the action of the 
waves. 

The price per cubic yard of fill (which is five-sixths of the whole 
work) is difficult to estimate closely. Quite an amount will be dumped 
free of charge, but the greater part will have to be paid for, and for the 
part above and near water level the material will have to be rehandled 
after dumping of same, except such material as is brought over the 
trestle. 

Respectfully submitted, 

(Signed) John Ericson, 

City Enginser. 



MONTROSE AVENUE RECREATION PIER AND 
BATHING BEACH. 

ESTIMATE OF COST. 

Timber, 92,000 ft, B. M., at $40.00 $ 3,680.00 

Piling, 21,000 lin. ft., at $0.20 4,200.00 

Iron Rods, etc., 20,000 lbs., at $0.03 600.00 

Concrete Curb, 300 cu. yds., at $8.00 2,400.00 

Concrete Walk, 4,500 sq. ft., at $0.16 720.00 

Filling, 37,000 cu. yds., at $0.20 7,400.00 

$19,000.00 
Paving, Contingencies, etc ; 3,000.00 

$22,000.00 

(Signed) Karl L. Lehmann, 

Chief Designer. 



32 

TWENTY-SECOND STREET RECREATION PIER AND 
BATHING BEACH. 

ESTIMATE OF COST. 

Timber, 30,000 ft., B. M., at $40.00 $ 1,200.00 

Piling, 40,000 lin. ft, at $0.20 8,000.00 

Rock, 10,000 cu. yds., at $0.50 5,000.00 

Iron Rods, etc., 16,000 lbs., at $0.03 480.00 

Filling, 100,000 cu. yds., at $0.25 25,000.00 

Concrete Walk, 6,000 sq. ft., at $0.16 960.00 

Subway under I. C. R. R., 300 lin. ft., at $30.00 9,000.00 

Railing, 1,000 lin. ft., at $0.36 360.00 

Immediate Outlay $50,000.00 

Timber, 350,000 ft, B. M., at $35.00 12,250.00 

Rehandling Rock, 2,500 cu. yds., at $0.30 750.00 

$63,000.00 
(Signed) Karl L. Lehmann, 

Chief Designer. 

MORGAN SHOAL PARK. 

ESTIMATE OF COST. 

First Five Years' Work. 
Brige to Island. (1,200 Feet) First Year: 

Piling, 3,000 lin. ft., at $0.20 $ 600.00 

Rock, 2,000 cu. yds., at $0.50 1,000.00 

Steel, 32 tons, at $50.00 1,600.00 

Bolts, Spikes, etc., 10 tons, at $60.00 600.00 

Timber, 210,000 ft., B. M., at $40.00 8,400.00 

Grading Road, 200 lin. ft., at $1.50 300.00 

$ 12,500.00 
Crib to Protect Shore of Island. (2,000 feet.) First and Second 
Years : 

Timber, 600,000 ft., B. M., at $40.00. $ 24,000.00 

Rock, 23,000 cu. yds., at $0.50 11,500.00 

Iron Rods, etc., 25 tons, at $60.00 1,500.00 

$ 37,000.00 
Making Island. (16 acres.) First Five Years: 

Rock, 40,000 cu. yds., at $0.30 $ 12,000.00 

Filling, 428,000 cu. yds., about $0.30 128,500.00 

$140,500.00 
First Five Years $190,000.00 

First Year's Work. 

Bridge $12,500.00 

Crib (one-half) 18,500.00 

Making Island 19,000.00 

First Year's Work $50,000.00 



33 

Second Five Years' Work. 
Making Island. (14 acres.) 

Rock, 30,000 cu. yds., at $0.30 $ 9,000.00 

Filling, 470,000 cu. yds., at $0.30 141,000.00 



$150,000.00 

Third Five Years' Work. 
Making Island. (15 acres.) 

Rock, 80,000 cu. yds., at $0.30 $ 24,000.00 

Filling, 587,000 cu. yds., at $0.30 176,000.00 

$200,000.00 



Grand Total for 45 Acres ....'... .540,000.00 

SUMMARY. 

1st year $ 50,000.00 9tli year $ 30,000.00 

2d year 35,000.00 lOthyear 30,000.00 

3d year 35,000.00 11th year 40,000.00 

4th year 35,000.00 12th year.. 40,000.00 

5th year 35,000.00 13th year 40,000.00 

6th year , 30,000.00 14th year 40,000,00 

7th year 30,000.00 15th year 40,000.00 

8th year 30,000.00 

Total .....$540,000.00 

$540,000 for 45 acres = $12,000 per acre. 
45 acres in 15 years = 3 acres per year. 

Total Rock, cu. yds 175,000 

Total Earth, Sand and Clay, cu. yds ., 1,485,000 



Total Fill, cu. yds. 1,660,000 

(Signed) Karl L. Lehmann, 

Chief Designer. 

December 5, 1910. 
Hon. Theodore K. Long, Alderman, Sixth Ward: 

Dear Sir, — Complying with your request, I hand you herewith a 
plan for proposed underground passage from the City park at the foot 
of Thirty-ninth street to a proposed bathing beach on the shore of Lake 
Michigan at this place. The estimated cost of this passageway is as fol- 
lows : 

Excavation '. $ 2,800 

Concrete 6,000 

Iron Inforcement 300 

Engineering Inspection, etc 900 

Total $10,000 

I estimate that a foot bridge about 12 feet wide and reaching from 
the City park to this bathing beach would cost about $6,000. No plans 



34 

for such a bridge have been made, but it is believed that the estimate is 
approximately correct. 

I also hand you herewith tracings of proposed bathing beaches and 
piers at Montrose boulevard, Twenty-second street and Fifty-first street. 

Yours truly, 

John Erioson, 
City Engineer. 
J.E.— M.C. 

9. committee's eecommendations. 

In the presentation of a plan for the establishment of bathing 
beaches and recreation piers, it is to be understood that the 
same is necessarily more or less tentative. The proposition is 
one that can not be worked out upon any fixed basis at this 
time. Yet it is a decided advantage that at least the general 
outline of the scheme should be well understood and determined 
as something to which we can hope to attain. The committee 
recommends the adoption of a plan which contemplates the 
establishment eventually of not less than seven municipal bath- 
ing beaches to be established substantially as follows : 

1. Montrose avenue. 

2. Diversey boulevard. (This beach has recently been 
opened by the Lincoln Park Commission.) 

3. Ohio street. 

4. Twenty-second street to Twenty-fifth street. (A small 
beach is now maintained by the city at Twenty-fifth street.) 

5. Thirty-ninth street. 

6. Jackson Park. (The South Park Commission has 
already formulated tentative plans for this beach.) 

7. Seventy-ninth street. (The city now maintains a small 
beach at this place.) 

The above beaches are shown in detail in the diagram marked 
'^Plate 1." 

In addition to the foregoing, the committee recommends 
that provision be made for filling in Morgan Reef between 
Forty-eighth and Fifty-first streets in accordance with the plans 
of Engineer Ericson, as slightly modified by Mr. Edward H. 
Bennett, to conform to the general shore lines of the Commercial 
Club plans, as revised October 25, 1910. (See ''Plate 2.") 

The committee also recommends that provision be made for 



35 

the commencement of work at Montrose avenue on the city's 
land at that point, and also at Twenty-second street, as soon as 
suitable arrangements can be made with claimants of the shore 
at the last named point, and also at Thirty-ninth street. 

The foregoing recommendations of the committee contem- 
plate initial expenditures as follows: 

Montrose avenue $ 22,000 

Twenty-second street 63,000 

Thirty-ninth street 15,000 

Morgan Shoal 50,000 

Total $150,000 

For complete details of the foregoing expenses see estimates 
of City Engineer Ericson. 

Your committee recommends that a bond issue be provided 
for to cover cost of bathing beaches and lake-shore improve- 
ments, as herein contemplated. 

Respectfully submitted, 
Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piees, 

By W. P. Dunn, 

Chairman. 
Lake Shore Reclamation Commission, 

By Theodore K. Long, 

Chairman. 

III. 

SKETCHES, PLANS, STUDIES AND DRAWINGS. 

The accompanying sketches, plans, studies and drawings 
were the result of frequent conferences between representatives 
of the Committee on Bathing Beaches and Recreation Piers, the 
Lake Shore Reclamation Commission, Mr. D. H. Burnham and 
Mr. Edward H. Bennett representing the Commercial Club Plan 
Committee, Mr. Charles H. Wacker, Chairman of the Chicago 
Plan Commission, and others, and are proffered as a tentative 
basis for the development of the lake shore, with reference to 
bathing beaches, for the reason that they seem to constitute 
a general scheme the initial expense of which does not render 



36 

the same prohibitory and the ultimate accomplishment of which 
is not remotely distant. 

November 4, 1910. 

Alderman Theodore K. Long, Chairman, Lake Shore Reclamation Com- 
mission, Chicago, Illinois: 
Dear Sir, — I herewith submit to you a set of nine (9) drawings, 
including a general plan of the Lake Shore from Montrose avenue to 
Seventy-ninth street, detailed studies of the Montrose avenue bathing 
beach and the Fifty-first street island and beach, also two colored per- 
spective views. 

I also return the four blue-prints of the Department of Public 
Works. 

Yours very truly, 

E. H. Bennett. 

LIST OF DRAWINGS, ETC., RELATING TO THE BATHING BEACHES, SUBMITTED TO 
ALDERMAN THEODORE K. LONG, NOVEMBER 4, 1910. 

Plate 1. Blue-print of the Lake Shore from Montrose avenue to 
Seventy-ninth street. 

Plate 2. Brown-line print of Morgan Shoal and bathing beach. 
(Small scale.) 

Plate 3. Brown-line print of Morgan Shoal and bathing beach. 
(Large scale.) 

Plate 4. Brown-line print of Montrose avenue recreation pier and 
bathing beach. 

Plate 5. Plan of proposed pavilion and bathing beach at Montrose 
avenue. 

Plate 6. Elevation of proposed pavilion and bathing beach at Mon- 
trose avenue. 

Plate 7. Brown-line print of Twenty-second street recreation pier 
and bathing beach. 

Plate 8. Perspective view of island and beach at Fifty-first street. 

Plate 9. Perspective of Montrose avenue bathing beach and pavilion. 

Also four blue-prints submitted by the Department of Public Works, 
November, 1909. 




V 



t 




CITY OF CHICAGO 

DEl'AUTMIiNT OF MUil.IC WORKS 

UUIlKAl' OF KNtilNEKRINO 



MONTROSE AVENUE 
RECREATION PIER AND BATHING BEACH 

PREPARED FOR COUNCIL COMMITTEE OM 
BATHING BEACHES AND RECREATION PIERS 



^^'yfivu^^tt^fi^ 



17 a 



PLATE A. 



■^^-e 



u 



17 S 




m 3 



CITY OF CHICAGO 
// DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS 
BUREAU OF ENGINEERING 



MONTROSE AVENUE 
RECREATION PIER AND BATHING BEACH 



17 a 



hA 



PLATE B. 






^^v 



St?? 



.eT/-?i 



ot ^ 



\H^J 



So. Park 




J[7 (JSection of Subway 

&"^' r.a- 



PLATE C. 




FIFTY-FIRST 








1 








^ 




+ I5\ 


^^^^ 






-—^■'^^^ 


tf77£i 








aan 




aatsmm 



-t 



\QDDODDafiaQSri 




vSJiOWlNG 
L^CHE5• 



=4 



\ 




■==zii=iiz:an| 



Y 





DIAGRAM OF SHORE UNE. -SHOWING 
PROPOSED 5A7HIN& BEACHES- 



PREPAK.ED POK cov/ICIl 
BATHING eEACHES S 



AVQ-.^i 19(0 



PL-ATE I 




PLATE 2 




li ! 





"l. 




PLATE 4. 



\ 



:i 





: ;1 






-1 H- 


||i 


i 




-1 t- 




' 













'WHM 



i ? ! 



»IiHHtIleCW»Wi'»aMiiP 



(11 



i 



/J^ 




^ 



c 



^ 



ft 




^VC,(;L/]TD AODinCATIO/^J 
ACC01ST)m& TO THL C HICAGO PiA^ TOlt 

TVENTTJ'ECOND j/"TR,EE T 
DICE FAT ION PlETi & lATHINij 3EACH 

/^C/^LE i' = ioo'o" I'^B ii lyo. 

y^ & o o ^f 

■P?£PAK.ED TOR 

THE COV/1CIL COM/nTTTEE 



PLATE 5. 



. I 




PLATE 6 



ft^-. 





PLATE 7, 










>CDCD<;D(CeCfDffiQwppCD0CDCDCDCDffiCDCD(DCDCDACDAA(I)ACDffiffi9(!DCD(I>(D(Ca>CD®(I)CD(D(!D(D(!D^<t>Ct)00(9 



f e+ c+ rt- H- <n- <^ c+J+5^- c+ «+ c+ c+ c+ c+r+c+«rf<rfe+e+<r+e+c+r+c+r+r+c+<:f<rtr+ 



GQ CQ OQ CQ I 



, itncQtBCQaip 







pp. CD <D fD CD CD CD CD CD 

4 S^ G C C 5?P P 



^^l 



scB a> 2 S » » ?D 






CDfDCDffiffiffiCDCPfDCDCD 



BBS 

•r* rr^ o 









iiii|lii|Lri|^iirf|Mfs 



aPi 









•<lP'* s. OD 



EEE5:e£EE&5:EEB:E5:E 
-^ ^ ^ - ^ .-t-.^^' 



00 
EE 

«D CO 



EEEEEEEEEEiE 

.-. - - -. -. -. ,. -. -. .. ,- ,. -. -. -. -- -.e+rtc+e+c+rt-irfe+e+H-c.,, 
CbCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD(XiCDCDCDCD(BCDCDCDCD(5CDCDCD(DCDCDCDCDi 



3g 

OS B 



QOOOOOOO 

£.£0 a> 01 tj- " " 
r S"^^ CO 00 i-" w 




CD^CDCDCPCDCDCDCDCD 



a 3CI P B cog Q.1: 

o trCJ^CiiS B to g t 



g'-'-t-lto i-* cneoww 



H-Sb fo 



.Jeeee 

CB o'o'Ca'a'?' SO SO 
" •<)><i<<j'<l<<i WWW" 

>. r>.*- >-»•«- s. CD CD CD 




CDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD 



^►1 OCT? 



O Et5 O O 

g 2 B'tJ'ti' 

g B p p^o-. 

P » H H 
M Jo & p- JJ 



*" CO go 



eEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 

®®CDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD(I>CDCDCDCD®CDCD^^^^G)CD_CD^^^ffi^®CDCDCDCDCDCDCD^JXi^_CDCDCDCD 
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQCDCDCCie»EDSOgto 

llllllllllllllllllllllli f Kei K^'FKS'l'K^I'FK^I^I^f fff f f ^^ I § i i i 1 1 

pgpppppp Ja" B* Cr P" Cfja" ti" tJ* P" B*J3" Ct ptJ'ls'- c_|i->i-ih-h-i-ii-itotooo^^cnOiWCocowcocois5N3MS(Mi-> K-" " -" -°° -°° 

» - .. .. - , » - - - - -- - - - - - - - ppj-;^50go03tOtOOOOO-400iJk^Cn~aOSCnOTls3tOcOtOW tStn&i-il-'i-ii-iuJ 

a[-' F'r'.i-' 'tDM" a 

P i-'to w e 

n • • to 90 



s-l-l^aSg 



^^S°; 



S 



§l^#?:^°_-^s1s5ifsWis ^1 i^ a a a^^^ 



3 23 










^c 




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^gggggggggggg'Jggg'i 




-d x3 ^ '^ "^ "^ 

fe- te- n3 'CJ t3 tS T 
^^ o o o o o 
.-S.-S o o o o o 






« . . (N rO to - f>,tO N (N >H - -1-1 d 

030. .^^ofi ---oiSS,cl'3 
OjojcajaitDOOOOOOOOOOO 

3333333333333333 



ilM >>03'-<i 



;Hti^. 



y ^ (U a) © CD m ^^-iJ ^ ^2 2 

+J-l-3+S+a-|J+J-|J-|JH-=+J+i+^+J- 

3333333333333; 



i & §11^1 s s ^g illll § i-g^ sl-SAog 



> a> CD 0)0 Q?crt<rttdcdgi]cflcritdtdcaci=ly=l^tdtrtcdcc]<i=ltf:lcpl 

33333333333333333333333333 



,00 • •• • • • 1-1 COCOC^COi-H 



S°OS?C^ 



ss 



O5t^COi-+<N^H00t 



OS iH tH tH rH C^ C^ C^ W CO CO -^ 00 CO tH y 1-1 rH iH iH i-H Hi 1-5 ;:::; Q ^ ^^ CO ,r-li-H ,COCOCOTtlTHu5iO»OiHT-H T-iTH,-li-HTHiHr-4i-(l-5 ,.pH 

-a-as aagaasaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .-«ia " "^ 

ft&aiOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoS 

DQ02e&^E^&^t-l&^E-^t^E^t^6^&^E^e-lHEHg^E^E-lE-lEH&-lE^e^ 



. „^ ^^ -^^;.^^~i§iias3a'"ia'"a''a"a'~aaag>l 



33333333333333333333333333333323333333333333333333333333 



IBJL12 



